Rediff News

Bangalore, Jan 28: The specter of terrorism has returned to haunt Karnataka. The Karnataka police recently arrested a cook and a medical student for having strong terror links. The duo revealed that they had plans of bombing the Hubli airport.

During the interrogation of Mohammad Ghouse and his friend Assadullah Abbubukar, the police learnt that Ghouse's father Naseeruddin Mohammad is a Lashkar e Toiba operative and has received training in Pakistan.

Intelligence Bureau sources said that Naseerruddin is a trained suicide bomber (Fidayeen), who was trained at Muzafarabad in Pakistan.

The arrest of the duo has generated a lot of interest among police forces from various states. Ghouse and Abbubukar will be interrogated by the Delhi police, the Hyderabad police and the Gujarat police.

The police are trying to dig out more information about Naseeruddin, who was allegedly involved in the Haren Pandya murder as well as the Hyderabad blasts.

Assadullah reportedly met Ghouse at a religious meeting in Hubli last year, and was influenced by the latter to take up the jihadi route.

The police have also recovered CDs and maps of various installations from the duo. Police teams from the other three states will soon arrive in Bangalore to interrogate the duo, say the Karnataka police.